The Cubs bullpen may be the worst collection of arms in a century.
It is the most glaring weakness on a ball club that has started out at 4-2.
In the short 2020 season, 10 percent has been played.
Overall, the pitching staff is not doing well:
4 W 2 L 5.43 ERA 53 IP 39 H 32 ER 27 BB 1.245 WHIP
But the bullpen is a black hole of badness:
0 W 0 L 9.65 ERA 18.2 IP 18 H 20 ER 20 BB 2.036 WHIP
The answer to this problem is clear: the Cubs failed to address the bullpen issues.
The reason was management refused in the off-season to spend any money.
Instead, you have pitchers coming out of the pen you have never heard of;
some making their major league debuts, some long term minor league journeymen, or
some who have not thrown in two years a major league pitch.
The bullpen is a bunch of reclamation projects with a slim hope that one
will catch lightning in a bottle.
Cub fans are stuck with this horror show. With the expanded playoffs of 16 of
30 teams, no one is really going to trade anyone at the deadline. And some
teams, like the Marlins, are toxic viral clusters so why infect your team
with another problem?
Can the offense score 6 runs or more each game to counter-balance the bad bullpen?
NO, of course not.
And that is why this season will be worse than expected.
